Obama Rebuffs 'Exceptionalism'

From Herb Dennenberg at The Bulletin:
We’ve recently had discussions of America’s exceptionalism — the unique and magnificent place in history of this country, the greatest nation in the history of the world, a unique and powerful democracy, with virtually unlimited productivity, generosity and humanity. This adds up to the unique and wonderful role America plays in the world. I would have thought that everyone would see that all of reason and history would without question concede this American exceptionalism.
But I was wrong. When our president, Barack Obama, was asked about that American exceptionalism while traveling abroad, he seemed to hem and haw and finally say our American exceptionalism is just like that of Britain, Greece, and presumably every other one of hundreds of countries.
He was asked a simple question — whether he believes in American exceptionalism. A simple “yes” would be in order. But no, Mr. Obama replied, “I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism”
In other words, in Mr. Obama’s mind, all countries are exceptional so in fact no country, including America, is exceptional. What a pathetic and outrageous cop-out. Our own president apparently isn’t perspicacious enough to realize the special qualities of America. In fact on his tour, he could not talk about our glorious history and role in the world. Instead, he was obsessed in what he called our darker periods.